Stories of girls — and women — tend to get short shrift in the multiplex.

So it comes as a nice surprise that as of today, there are three young heroines for moviegoers to cheer on as a feral teen named Hanna and a resilient survivor named Bethany join the ever-intrepid Jane Eyre on the big screen. Charlotte Bronte’s protagonist continues her saga anew in director Cary Fukunaga’s gorgeously atmospheric film, starring Mia Wasikowska. But adaptations of 19th-century tales can tell us only so much about present-day teenage girls.

So it’s good to have the determined Hanna and Bethany take on bravado, be it real or fantastical, engineered or nurtured, secular or faith-based (Christian, we should add).

To tease an album title of yore, Hanna and Bethany could be the twin daughters of different mothers.

One fights. The other surfs. Hanna kills. Bethany struggles to heal. Each is determined. Each is confounded at times by the hand she’s been dealt. And each has a father who pushes his only daughter past her doubts.

Irish actress Saoirse Ronan reunites with “Atonement” director Joe Wright in the propulsive “Hanna.” We first meet her as she tracks a reindeer in a snowy field — with bow and arrow. “I missed your heart,” she tells her felled quarry with what might be regret. It’s hard to tell with Hanna because she’s been raised in such isolation.

Eric Bana portrays Erik. The CIA asset has trained his daughter to be lethally ready for the necessary battle with Marissa Wiegler, the colleague responsible for their off-the-grid exile. If you’ve seen the thumping, racing preview, then you know Hanna executes her task efficiently. Only the woman she dispatches is not Wiegler.

The red bob that a finely focused Cate Blanchett wears does nothing to thaw the ice in the real Marissa’s veins. She’s a wicked witch with a Texas drawl.

Ignoring CIA protocol to hunt down Erik and Hanna, she contracts with an off-the- books killer named Isaacs. Baby-faced Tom Hollander seems to have taken his inspiration from the creepy insouciance of baddies from “A Clockwork Orange” and Michael Haneke’s terribly unfunny chiller “Funny Games.” He’s oh so pleased with himself, so poisonous. He whistles while he works, and his nasty biz leaves collateral damage.

Hanna is overprepared for conflict and woefully unschooled in just about everything else: friendship, first kisses and more.

“Hanna” plays out as a visceral fairy tale about a naif discovering a world both fascinating and dangerous. “Soul Surfer,” meanwhile, unfolds as a faith- based, reality-inspired parable.

Denver native AnnaSophia Robb portrays Bethany Hamilton, who in 2003 lost her left arm in a shark attack in Hawaii. Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt offer a steady presence (and comfortingly professional performances) as parents Tom and Cheri.

Based on Hamilton’s 2004 memoir, “Soul Surfer” recounts the incident and her recovery. Hamilton, now 21, remains a competitor on the professional circuit. And last month, she was in Denver, along with Robb, for the movie’s Colorado premiere at the Women + Film Voices Film Festival.

With its emphasis on a kind of honed invincibility, “Hanna” doesn’t take fear seriously. That’s part of the point. When a new friend asks her, “Are you scared?,” Hanna replies, “Of what?”

But “Soul Surfer” faces fears head on. After all, getting back in the water was hard enough for the masses who went to Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws.” What must it be like for Hamilton to paddle back into that blue expanse after her near-fatal encounter? And then there’s her not-unreasonable confusion about God’s plan.

Robb does an able job of capturing that anxiety and spiritual anguish. And the combination of prosthetics and special effects used to render her wound is at once fascinating and convincing.

But she’s not helped here by the script. Directed and co written by Sean McNamara (“Bratz”), “Soul Surfer” is preachier than it needs to be. There’s much that is moving and admirable about the Hamilton family bond and its religious foundation. There’s plenty to trust in Bethany’s story without straining to prove its evangelical cred.

While there may be too much telling, once Bethany hits the waves — before and especially after the attack — the movie, shot by John Leonetti, puts on an inspiring show.

Still, the film’s best pleasure comes in its depiction of the relationship between Bethany and best friend and fellow surfer Alana Blanchard (Lorraine Nicholson, Jack’s girl).

There the morning Bethany was attacked, Alana struggles with her friend’s loss.

Sure, there is a half-hearted mean-girl subplot. Sonya Balmores Chung does spiky work as a “no-apologies-forthcoming” competitor.

But it’s Bethany and Alana’s friendship — its sturdiness and vulnerability, its laughs and sincere apologies — that rules the day.

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